1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a gaming machine that uses credit and particularly relates to a data converter for gaming machines that enables credit issued by a gaming machine to be used in another gaming machine, and a credit information management system provided with a data converter for gaming machines.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Generally in game arcades credit is converted into coins and a gaming machine is used by inserting one of these coins into the gaming machine. It should be noted that here “credit” represents a general purpose exchange value such as a monetary currency. Since coins present problems of convenience when they are used related to their size and weight, gaming machines have been proposed that use tickets instead of coins.
At game arcades that use tickets, tickets are issued instead of coins at a ticket issuing location. With these tickets, code data corresponding to credit is printed on a strip of paper in the form of a barcode or the like. The gaming machine is provided with a reading device that reads the barcode printed on the ticket. When a game player inserts the ticket into the reading device of the gaming machine, the gaming machine executes a game based on the credit recorded in the barcode that has been read (for example, see U.S. Pat. No. 6,729,957).
In addition to the above-mentioned patent document, other patent documents are known as prior art relating to gaming machines that use tickets, including U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,265,874, 5,290,033, 5,429,361, 5,470,079, 6,048,269, 6,729,958 and 6736725.
Generally in game arcades there are gaming machines installed offering various forms of games such as slot machines, pachinko machines and the like. These gaming machines are not only the gaming machines having different forms of games, but also include gaming machines offering the same form of game which is varied and not provided with the same game mechanism due to such factors as having different gaming machine manufacturers and manufacture dates. For this reason, even within the same game arcades, not all the gaming machines may be capable of using tickets and there may be gaming machines installed that do not support tickets. Consequently, gaming machines that do not have installed a mechanism capable of using tickets are not able to carry out a game using tickets.
FIG. 17 includes diagrams for describing a gaming machine that uses tickets. FIG. 17A illustrates a gaming machine that supports coins, and a gaming machine 3 executes a game upon insertion of a coin 13. FIG. 17B illustrates a ticket-compatible gaming machine that supports tickets. A ticket-compatible gaming machine 3p executes a game using tickets instead of coins by having a ticket reading device read credit information recorded on a ticket 11.
FIG. 17C illustrates a ticket-incompatible gaming machine that does not support tickets. A ticket-incompatible gaming machine 3a cannot read the credit information recorded on tickets and therefore to carry out a game using a ticket, the credit recorded on a ticket 11 must be converted at a conversion facility such as a counter provided in the game arcades to a medium such as the coin 13 or the like, which can be used on the gaming machine the game player is attempting to use, then the ticket-incompatible gaming machine 3a is used by using the converted coin 13.
For this reason, the game player cannot enjoy the convenience of tickets.
This problem can be somewhat addressed by installing a ticket reading device in the ticket-incompatible gaming machine that does not support tickets, but in this case a ticket reading device must be installed in each of the gaming machines, which presents another problem of having to install a ticket reading device each time a gaming machine is replaced.
Furthermore, it is necessary to protect against illicit conversion of credit information when converting credit information. With the above-described configuration in which credit information conversion is carried out by simply installing a ticket reading device in the ticket-incompatible gaming machine, there is a problem in that it is difficult to protect against illicit conversion of credit information.